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The scare-mongers in the MSM are already claiming that 80,000 public service jobs will be cut. I doubt it will be a 10th of that. But given the numbers in that article (417,000??) even 20,000 or so wouldn't be a bad thing.

*how exactly is it, even under an allegedly conservative government... we have new civil service hires coming out our asses... and i still have to wait six hours in the local emergency room for medical attention?

Neo - the hospital is courtesy of your Liberal Premier. Health care is a provincial issue.

More to the point - get rid of some of the CRA auditors - the ones that have no idea (and less understanding) of how business is run, and couldn't care less as long as they can 'find' a problem. As we learned in class, the received wisdom is to give them something small to find so they can claim success and go away.

I have some confidence in Tony the Tiger after the long form census faux-outrage. He held his ground and got the job done in the midst of prolonged shrieking from every media outlet, activist group and NGO welfare case. I find nothing scary about 80,000 public sector jobs getting cut. It would be a good start. If there's no howling he's not going hard enough.

You can trim and parse until you are blue in the face but if 90% of spending is off the table (EI, CPP, OAS, Canada Health Act etc) the MOST you can save is the remaining 10%!The issue is government activity. Yes there are some savings with frugality and efficientcy but if gov't is going to undertake activity X to transfer cash to widow O'Leary it requires civil servants and operating funds to execute.Start eliminating whole programmes and then whole departments, branches and agencies disappear.

i'm guessing, norm... that the only items that are truly untouchable... are things like politicians gold-plated pensions. the people at the top of the food chain tend to take care of their own interests first.

as the castle walls start to crumble, you might be surprised to find out what previously sancrosanct stuff is actually in play.

Norm, programs will be cut. All departments have been asked to present two operating budgets: one at 5% less funding and one at 10% less funding. The Treasury Board will then decide which budget to approve. Some may get to keep their full budget while others are hit with the 10% cut. The overall effect should be a 5% reduction in government spending.

Since civil service positions will only be reduced through attrition, that means there will be a lot of reshuffling of jobs as programs are shut down. Either that or people will be payed to occupy a cubicle.

The quickest way to reduce salary budget while keeping the promise not to cut jobs is to cancel outsourced contracts and not extend term employees. I foresee a lot of that in the coming year.